Jenny Parrott
JENNY PARROTT | “PREGNANCY CHOIR” | RACHEL RACHEL RECORDS | NOV. 4, 2022
Bio (2022):
Austin-based artist, songwriter, and new parent, Jenny Parrott will release “Pregnancy Choir,” an eight-minute musical poem presented over seven tracks on Nov. 4, 2022.
Centered mainly around her layered vocals (recorded while pregnant with baby Juno), Parrott says, “‘Pregnancy Choir’ explores what it’s like to be in a pregnant body and to hear many voices: Ancestors, doctors, lovers, friends and relations all talking to and at you. “Literally ‘Joe Everyone’ tries to give advice,” she jokes.
The voice we hear the most through Parrott on “Pregnancy Choir” is the one she describes last: “Your own brain’s ‘Lil Greek Chorus.’”
The piece is a surprising change from the twang of Parrott’s 2021 album The Fire I Saw, but no less deeply felt. It’s her ability to effectively channel emotion that has brought attention to Parrott’s work over the years, regardless of style.
This time, “Pregnancy Choir” piece came out of necessity.
“I tried to record using my usual gear and instruments,” Parrott remembers. “I just gave up one night and was like, ‘Let’s see what I can do with just vocals. No bending, no lifting! Also, I’ve been obsessed with Bernice Johnson Reagon, Grouper, and Björk for a while.”
While “Pregnancy Choir” is deep in concept, it’s also a joy. The circumstances surrounding its creation, and the cover art featuring the duo of Jenny and Juno, may subtly remind of the Talking Heads baby-based hit, “Stay Up Late.”
Still, Parrott reminds of the reality that sometimes the “Lil Greek Chorus” is “at odds with itself, experiencing the thrill of life, fear of death, excitement, and foreboding all at once. It rejects the ‘Earth Mama’ ‘Pinterest-y’ branding of pregnancy in favor of an honest dive in the conscious, sub-conscious, and general cacophony they create in a mind.”
Parrott is also acutely aware of what experiencing pregnancy and becoming a new parent means at this moment in our society.
“Being able to create and sustain life is a magical thing,” she confides, “But the magic is dimmed by living in a culture that seeks to control bodies. It can feel like a pregnant person’s body is a public commodity. Some of the dissonance in the album is meant to reflect that.”
When it’s done, Parrott hopes to leave a listener without “the barrage of opinions and messaging you receive living in a pregnant body in Texas in 2022,” and more with the ability of the “Lil Greek Chorus” to support, transform, and uplift.
“Pregnancy Choir” by Jenny Parrott is scheduled for release on Nov. 4, 2022 via Rachel Rachel Records.
Bio (2021):
Jenny Parrott’s 2017 solo debut When I Come Down was named one of the Austin Chronicle’s Top 10 albums of that year. Her follow-up full-length The Fire I Saw arrives on Nov. 12th, 2021.
The new album is, naturally, an evolution of Parrott’s seemingly effortless lyricism, humor mixed with despair, and ultimately, her economic use of unforgettable melodies and just-right instrumentation that makes you feel like she’s seeing you even more than she’s seeing herself.
“These arms can’t stand an ever loving man. And these eyes can’t see a never changing me.”
The opening lines of first single “I Thought” stop you dead in your tracks. A perfect example of what Parrott does over the course of an album that doesn’t even clock in past 25 minutes and doesn’t need to. Parrott takes care of all business during the brief span of the eight songs on The Fire I Saw, in a way many songwriters work an entire career towards and never reach.
The album was originally going to be a more standard-length release, but the pandemic changed up Parrott’s plans.
“I had to give the album a makeover because I was planning on having all my buds come over and finish it in the home studio. Most of my friends in Austin are rootsy-type players, so it would have had that feel. But I was stuck at home in a damp cul-de-sac, and I was scared of the virus, and didn’t want anyone in my space,” she explains.
Teaching herself Logic, and putting her Roland Juno into overdrive, Parrott spent time testing and tweaking her favorite synth patches until she had whittled the album down to the “eight that I felt were okay.”
Some may say, the eight are more than “okay.”
American icon, Kinky Friedman has been quoted as saying Parrott’s tunes are “the best songs I’ve heard since Christ was a cowboy!,” which, it can be argued, is a more interesting string of words than anything Kinky could have actually been talking about, but we get the idea.
Parrott has played prisons, a Black Panther reunion party, children’s shows, on streets all over the world, and in every basement from here to New York. She has opened for Jonathan Richman, Pokey LaFarge, and Delbert McClinton. These aren’t mere credits, they are experiences that you should rightfully expect inform Parrott’s songs.
And not all of the experiences need to be so flashy. Mundane works just fine, too.
Parrott describes the album track “July” as being “written while taking out the garbage in Macon, Georgia” and opener “Knockin’ Back Some Cokes” as “a play on how Sam Cooke is always singing about Coke and popcorn and cake and ice cream,” although she goes on to rightly remark that her take contains “sinister lyrics about facing down climate change and the apocalypse.”
Similarly stark is the previously mentioned, “I Thought,” which, while taking Parrott’s stock of her ability to love and be loved, was “written as a response to an abusive relationship at a time in my life where I swore I’d cut out people with violence in their repertoire.”
“A lot of the songs are about life, death, and faith,” she says. “Like, having enough faith to wonder about your child’s future in ‘Georgica,’” she explains, referring to another of the album’s upcoming singles, which was written for a hometown friend that Parrott used to sing with.
“I am trying to be myself with the songs and performances, instead of putting out a record with the right number of happy-sounding songs on it,” she says. “You don’t have to use a dude’s guitar part to spare his feelings! That will only dim the fire within you that you saw, and you’ve got to feed it.”
The Fire I Saw, the second solo album by Jenny Parrott, arrives on Nov. 12th, 2021, preceded by the singles “I Thought” (Oct. 1) and “Georgica” (Oct. 22).
NEWS:
PRESS QUOTES:
“As if the singer-songwriter scribed the lyrics while sitting on a cloud... easygoing verse and strong musical talent.”
“A soaring solo effort... Turns the heat way up with intricate synth-work and some of her finest vocal performances to date.”
“She’s pretty amazing. There is nothing to not like about Jenny Parrott, be sure to get more of her in your life.”
“Parrott creates potent songs with a smoldering drowsy flow.”
“Parrott was always a distinctive and leading enough of a vocalist that a solo prospect is a natural one for her... she’s stretching out into new fields plush with soul.”
“Folk, soul, rock... with what seems like effortless talent to adapt and bring out the best of each genre.”
“A wonderfully rich amalgam of American roots music styles.”
LIVE:
12/02/2022: Austin, TX @ Hole In The Wall (Residency)
PRESS RELEASES:
SOCIALS:
LISTEN:
Bandcamp: jennyparrott.bandcamp.com
Spotify: spoti.fi/3kGVvJW
Apple: apple.co/3DQEeqP
Assets:
Jenny Parrott self-portrait w/ baby Juno. Click for hi-res.
“Pregnancy Choir” cover art. Click for hi-res.
Jenny Parrott as photographed by Carrie Jane Fink. Design by Catfish. Click for hi-res.
Jenny Parrott as photographed by Carrie Jane Fink. Design by Catfish. Click for hi-res.
Jenny Parrott as photographed by Carrie Jane Fink. Design by Catfish. Click for hi-res.
The Fire I Saw album cover art. Click for hi-res.